Conveying units are here conveying means having carriers for the container blanks, which are conveyed in a closed loop.
Apparatuses for blow molding objects from prefabricated parisons, which are also referred to as container blanks or preforms, are known from the prior art, e.g. from DE 10 2010 018 153 A1.
In addition, DE 3 910 293 C2 discloses an apparatus for blow molding objects from prefabricated parisons, comprising a conveying unit, which moves the parisons through a heating station including an infrared radiator, wherein the respective parisons are attached to a mandrel of a holder, with the neck area facing downwards, and are rotated about their vertical axis while they are conveyed, and further comprising a unit for removing the heated parisons from the holders at a removal station located downstream of the heating station and for transferring the parisons to at least one blow molding station, wherein said conveying unit comprises at least one conveyor chain moving the parisons intermittently to the removal station and wherein a respective holder is releasably secured to two neighboring chain links of the conveyor chain, so that the distance between the holders can be adjusted in the conveying direction so as to minimize the spaces between the parisons to be heated, if said parisons should have different diameters.
This known prior art is, however, disadvantageous insofar as it is rather cumbersome to process differently configured containers, since such processing always requires, in advance, a complicated adaptation of the carriers coupled to the conveyor chain.